decker12

[quote name='porky37']We just came back from the March 27th sailing onboard Liberty. Tidal Wave slide was not operational during the whole cruise. Internet was terrible!! We could connect, and within a minute it would drop us again, so we were forced to reconnect, only to find out it takes about 10 minutes to load a text only page. We were able to get a small amount refunded back to us, but we still paid nearly $100 for the week, and it was pretty useless. Giovani's was excellent. We did not like Sabor. We had tried it on Oasis of the Seas, where it was a la carte, so it was nice just having everything included in the cover charge, but the food was not very good. The rest of the cruise was great.[/quote]

By Tidal Wave slide do you mean the very tall metallic looking water slide, or the wave generator where you can surf/boogie board? If you mean the water slide, that's really disappointing because it wasn't functional when I was there in February, and it sounds like they still haven't ironed out the function of it if it's still broken in March.

I do hear that they are planning on upgrading the Internet to the high speed satellite tech like some of the other RC ships have. I found it to be practically unusable when I was there, plus they charge extra for additional devices. We were expecting some important news from home so we had to check email at least a few times a day and fortunately due to the Diamond club status we at least didn't have to pay for a portion of it. It was however pretty miserable checking simple Gmail. There is no way you could even hope to stream anything like Youtube or visit any media rich sites.

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't too bothered because it was kind of nice with the whole boat not having Internet access, so you didn't see people with their noses in their phones all the time at dinner and at the pool.

[quote name='SA Traveler']I am curious about the Windjammer french fries. On the repo to Galveston they were not the same good crunchy ones but just plain old soggy ones. We are on the Liberty on the 13th and my grandson is going to be very upset if they don't have those good french fries.[/quote]

My Liberty Windjammer french fries were sadly nothing to write home about. I tried them a couple off times and they were just basic french fries, I'd say about the same quality and thickness you'd get at Wendy's. They didn't taste particularly homemade. The tater tots they served at breakfast were better even though they clearly were not homemade.

Part of the problem is that everything I had over at the Windjammer (other than the coffee and the omelets they make on request) was basically lukewarm. My entire family noticed this, at no time did we get anything from the buffet that was steaming hot.

Liberty Internet was pretty bad. There is a decent wifi signal throughout the ship (especially considering how much metal is around to block the signal) but the ship's connection to the Internet was pretty slow.

 

It was impossible to watch a Youtube video for instance, let alone any type of Skype / FaceTime / Netflix. I had to switch to the "low bandwidth" setting on Gmail and regular web browsing was possible but really, really slow. I recommend using an Ad Block app so your web browser doesn't have to load any more pictures and data than it needs to.

 

Oddly, the one thing that did work was the Facetime Video/Audio chat that's built into the Messenger app on an iOS device. I was able to have a mostly understandable voice conversation with someone in the USA. Again nowhere near the quality you'd get even on a poor cell signal in the mainland USA.

 

All that being said it was refreshing to be so completely out of touch with the usual constant email / social networking that we're all so used to when at home. There was also no sea of faces staring at iPhones during dinner or the pool deck or during the shows. I turned my phone off and left it in the cabin the entire trip.

[quote name='DM_KidAtHeart']Thanks for the typed version for the compasses.
So what's the typed version of the link for the pictures?[/quote]

The link on Cruise Critic looks like this when it opens in a web browser:

[url]http://**********/a/bDBDk[/url]

Replace all those ***'s with imgur(dot)com and leave the rest as is.

[quote name='twalker002']Thank you for the time you took to review it is very helpful to those of us who are new to Royal or cruising in general.
I tried the links and neither worked can you try to repost the links?[/quote]

There's some limitation to posting links on Cruise Critic that I can't get past. I put in the links properly and the forum replaced the site with ****, so that's why it's not working.

The fix is to copy and paste my link into a web browser, then manually backspace over the **** parts and put imgur(dot)com, and leave the rest. Since I can't post the link in this reply, or it'll just **** them out again, your final link will look like this:

imgur(dot)com/a/SHRPH

You have to remove the word (dot) and replace it with an actual period .

Kind of a pain in the ass, I guess this forum does that to prevent spam.

Hey everyone, thanks for the kind words about my review of the Liberty of the Seas.

As requested, [URL="http://**********/a/SHRPH"]here's a link[/URL] to the Cruise Compasses (not sure what happened to my Day 7, but it's pretty similar to Day 2 if I remember).

[URL="http://**********/a/bDBDk"]Here are some other pictures[/URL] I took of the ship's decks, the Animal Sanctuary, and the Iguana Farm. Note that the volleyball game in the pool was only for an hour or so on the last sea day, I did not see it any other time. The goal of this album is not to bore you with my vacation pics but instead give you some visuals to go with my review :)

Those are Imgur links, so you have to manually replace the *'s with the correct URL to see the albums. Not sure why they're being censored.

[quote name='wolfganghowell']Wow - usually on that class of ship you can hear the band AND still talk. The Pool Bar is our general "perch" on sea days. Did you notice if the tiered levels on either side are still reserved for suites?

Do you happen to know if they did Silent Disco one night?

Thanks for answering all the questions. :D The price you pay for such a fabulous and detailed review![/quote]

They did not do Silent Disco and it was missed, because we had a ton of fun with that last cruise in 2014. Although I guess if DJ Tony was DJin'g Silent Disco it wouldn't have been anything special. :(

The only special access sunbathing areas I saw was the It was the roof of the Sky Bar. That was reserved for Suites with Gold cards but Diamond Plus people could use it as well. There was someone checking cards before you could go up there and there wasn't any shade, plus it was very windy and only accessible via a staircase.

On another note, I found that our Diamond Plus cards would get us into the same areas reserved for Gold cards (except for the Suites lounge). This included the special sunbathing area, the reserved seating for the shows, etc.

The thing with DJ Tony is that he actually played a great mix but that was the last night on the ship, so we know he had the music in his library. I just don't have any idea why he waited until the last night to play it. It was really aggravating the other nights to hear the exact same damn music in the same order. "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger isn't exactly a get all the ladies to the dance floor kind of song, but yet he'd play it along with a series of other questionable choices regardless of who was on the dance floor, or how quickly it emptied out when he played something goofy.

The first night we heard his playlist my wife and I thought it was pretty tired, but maybe it'll be better the next night. Instead it was the same thing, and by the third night, we got off the elevator at the 14th floor, heard that same song, and got right back on the elevator without spending a dime at the bar. There was also a "love song" night which was especially painful, all the songs were treacly slow dance numbers that went on for like 90 minutes and I remember maybe 3 people on the dance floor the entire time, yet DJ Tony trudged along.

[quote name='wolfganghowell']
Thanks for all the info. OH! How is the Pool Band?[/quote]

The pool band was fine, but the most I remember about them was how loud they were. They play on the adult side of the pool deck, under the big screen.

I'm usually not sensitive to loud music but for some reason the pool band bugged me, maybe it was the steel drums or something. The same band played in the Promenade throughout the week.

I ended up hanging out and chatting at the Solarium bar instead of the main pool bar because you couldn't have a conversation with the person next to you when they were playing.

[quote name='vonnietx']Great review! Thank you! Sorry to hear about your daughter's water glass and subsequent cut. :(. Did your daughter ever participate in the kids clubs? Having an almost 9 year old daughter I was wondering if she enjoyed them. Also, I read somewhere that there is a 50 kid limit. Did you see any issues with the limit? 50 doesn't seem like a lot of kids in the kids club with how many people are on the ship at one time. Thanks!![/quote]

She did not participate in the Kids Club. We walked past it several times and didn't exactly see throngs of kids milling about. Come to think of it I don't really remember seeing any groups of kids surrounding a chaperon, maybe they only stay inside the Kids Club when you drop them off instead of going to places on the ship?

She pretty much did everything we did, including eating at 8PM at the MDR instead of the My Time dining, and she went to almost all the shows with us. The Liberty also had a surprisingly decent video game arcade, with most games costing $0.50 or so. Great, well maintained air hockey tables.

She wasn't interested in the Dreamworks parade stuff or getting pictures with the characters, there were several opportunities for that but I dunno, I think she's just too old to be fascinated by that stuff now.

The only issue we ran into was during Sea Days when my kid wanted to be in the pool all day long, but we had literally no where to sit that gave us line of sight to her.

IMO the downside to Galveston is that it's an hour away from Hobby, just like if you flew into Orlando to go to their ports. If you rent a car you have to pay for the car and parking, easily $250+. If you get a car service, you have to pay for the round trip, again $250+. If you use a shuttle service, you're saving money but you're not on your own schedule.

If your flights don't line up properly with the cruise ship, you may have to stay Saturday night and/or Sunday night, again another $200.

That being said, I really enjoyed Galveston. Plenty to do there and many things within walking distance if you have to kill time between the cruise arrival/departure. I hate to say it but the Italian food we got delivered to our hotel room on Sunday night was better than several meals we had on the cruise!

Sure, some of the interior homes and streets in Galveston look a bit ragged but I write that off as hurricane damage. There is also a Wal Mart in case you need to stock up before or after your cruise. The only downside is that Galveston is big and spread out so if you don't have a car you'll need to take a taxi.

Keep in mind that Galveston in the winter isn't as nice as Belize in the winter, so pack something other than shorts and T-shirts for when you get off the boat.

If it's not too windy, there are plenty of seats outside the mini golf area on the Liberty. Not the best for sun bathing but pleasant and away from the pool noise.

 

There's also a couple of "secret" places up above the Solarium and in the nooks and crannies on the stern fringes of the pool deck on the 12th and 13th floor, you just have to go up there and look for them.

 

Also, there are tiered benches near the Flow Rider on the 13th floor which are shaded and sheltered from the wind. The Flow Rider doesn't run all the time, so it's a decent place to hang out. No drink service up here.

 

The 4th floor aft and stern areas have a ton of space that nobody ever seems to visit as well. 12th floor outside past Johnny Rockets is also usually deserted.

 

Deck 14's lounge is deserted on port days. On other days, it really only gets busy at about 4:30 PM when the early dinner crowd shows up for a drink.

 

Finally don't forget the Card Room on Deck 10. There are no windows or drink service, but it was usually sparsely populated when I visited.

On the Liberty there's almost too many places to smoke. I was turned off by the huge smoking area on the pool deck and near the shuffleboard on the 4th floor. I was stuck near the smoking area on the pool deck one day and it made me sick after a couple of hours.

 

Don't try to sneak smokes on your balcony on the Liberty. They will take it very seriously and will ding you $250 every time someone calls it in. We saw it happen twice the last cruise - I was on my balcony, thought I smelled smoke for only a minute, craned my neck to see who was doing it and what deck, and then looked down and saw Security was on the lower decks below us, looking up towards our side of the ship and they instantly knew who was doing it. This was at dusk on a sea day during high winds too, they just seemed to know. Besides the second hand smoke and smell that the other guests will notice, it's a litter and a fire hazard.

Correct, the $60 for the 10 drink punch card deal showed up on Friday's Compass. I did not take advantage of the deal as I already had the Premium package, so I'm not sure what you have to go through to sign up for that deal, or if any bartender could do it or if you had to go to Guest Services.

 

Seemed like a great deal to help round out your partying the last couple of nights. From the way it was worded it sounded like it was good for everything, including specialty coffees and wine up to $12 (you pay the difference if you want a more expensive glass of wine). Of course using this for coffee or Perrier isn't a great use of the deal, but I could see people taking advantage of that the last day on the ship if you have extra uses left. I doubt you can use buy one get ones with it, or use it to get the 20% savings on bottles of wine.

 

I also don't know if it's somehow tied to a Seapass or if it's a physical card (which means you could potentially lose it), nor do I know if it's a physical punch on the card or if it's just in their POS system. Besides the savings, this shareable card would be a great way to buy a glass of champagne for the whole table at dinner without everyone having to screw with their own Seapass cards.

 

Shame they didn't offer this when we got onboard. I was the only "big" drinker in our group, which is why I got the Premium Package, but that being said my parents or my wife would have enjoyed a couple of fruity cocktails if they knew they could share the punch card and it'd only cost $6 instead of $10.

 

For further clarification, drinks always add a 18% tip to them, which means a beer runs $7 and a Bacardi and coke runs $9.50. Wine by the glass is roughly $12. Fruity pool drinks (Mai Tais, daiquiris, etc) and mudslides run $10.50. IIRC whiskey and scotch are also $9.50. Specialty cocktails like Cosmopolitans also run $10.50 with that 18% tip factored in.

 

One weird anomaly that I did not take advantage of in the Pub: Their drinks menu is different from the rest of the ship because of all the beer it includes, and it lists all the cocktails they have, with a little * ("not included in the premium beverage package") for a handful of items like blue label Chimay. However, this exact same booze list also included Johnny Walker Blue label, but with out the *. Meaning it's possible that you could drink $180/bottle Blue all night with your $50/day drink package, but again I didn't try it so I'm not entirely sure.

 

Also, something funny - the Schooner Bar has a drinks menu that includes graphics and pictures from RC cruises in the 70's and 80's. They confusingly list these "old drink menus" right along with the current drink menus. When I sat down and picked up the menu before realizing the graphic look/feel they were going for, I was amazed to see a Strawberry Daiquiri listed for $3 and a Manhattan listed for $5. Needless to say, those are just pictures of sample menus from 30+ years ago, not the actual prices you will pay for those drinks today.

Thanks for your detailed review!

It is very helpful for planning purposes and what not to miss . We are all vegetarians , i hope they have good options.

Do you have any cruise compasses/Teen activities planner?

 

I saved all my Compasses but haven't scanned them in yet. I'll update this post with a photo album link when I get around to it in the next couple of days.

 

As far as vegetarian choices, the main dining room has a set menu (available every night) and then a rotating menu (usually themed, like Seafood or Italian). There is always a vegetarian option in the set menu and the rotating menu. However the non-vegetarian options are more extensive, so a meat eater will have 5+ things to choose from each night where a vegetarian would only have around 3. The buffet has many options and the specialty restaurants also have at least a few vegetarian choices.

 

Heard about how uncomfortable the mattresses are, is this because the brands have now been changed? I sailed the Freedom last year, and liked the mattress. Just trying to decide if i should request the mattress toppers?

 

I do think the mattresses are different and less comfortable than my last RC cruise in 2014. The 2014 cruise I slept incredibly well, but this 2016 cruise I did not. My wife (a side sleeper) complained that her hip hurt after a couple of days so we got the mattress topper which improved things but still wasn't exactly luxurious. Unlike the 2014 cruise, not once did we sleep in the entire time (we were always up and awake by 7:30AM), partly because we were going to bed before midnight, and partly because the bed just wasn't comfortable enough for us to want to lounge in it all morning. I slept like the dead in my own bed a few nights after getting back from the cruise.

Are you talking about the Diamond Club or the Suites Lounge? Both are on Deck 14.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

The Diamond Club. Granted, one of those times was a port day, and we weren't up there during the 3:30 Happy Hour, it was earlier in the day. But we were there for a couple hours playing cards and not once did a staff member appear to clean up or restock the coffee machine (which was out of beans). The entire back wall where the buffet area sits was filled with dirty plates, coffee mugs, and soda cans that looked like they were there since the morning.

 

It wasn't a huge deal because we could play cards anywhere on the nearly empty ship, it was just unusual to see the Diamond Club in such rough shape.

We will be two families each traveling with a toddler, any suggestions on best ways to board and exit the ship? Long wait times are ok for us but with kids it could be painful!!!

 

You'll be assigned a luggage number, and the night before you put out bags that you don't want to carry around the next morning. You look at the TV screens and queue up in a lounge or another area of the ship until they call your number.

 

Breakfast at the Wind Jammer will be a crowded zoo that morning, so plan accordingly (we just squirreled away snacks the night before so we didn't have to deal with the crowds in the morning). If you're in a large group there's no way you'll find enough tables to sit at the last morning on the ship. Consider eating your breakfast somewhere else once you get off the ship. Everyone is off the ship by 10AM.

 

As far as actually getting off the ship, it's pretty straightforward, you're just in a lounge waiting for your number to be called. The biggest issue I see in your situation is the customs and baggage area at the port in Galveston. As I said in my review, it's currently pretty chaotic and can be a frustrating, hot experience. Imagine if an airport had 2000 people all go to a central area to claim their bags and there were no carousels, just luggage in numbered stacks around a huge hangar.

 

Because of that chaos, save yourself the aggravation and go to the Porter line and tip the guy $10. The porter will use his cart and navigate through the chaos to your bags, load them up, and take you to a special line at Customs. It's well worth the $10-$15 tip.

 

Also since you'll have kids, I recommend putting as much as you can outside your room the night before, and only carrying the very basics that you'll need into the port building. We made that mistake as each of us had a backpack and a carry-on, which made it awkward (and hot!) to lug around for the hour it took us to get to our car once we left the ship. I should have put almost all those items out the night before and let the porter grab them in the Port building, instead of me carrying them around and navigating a rolling cart through throngs of people.

A few other things that I forgot to put on the initial review:

 

We had to be very vigilant with cashing in our various freebies, discounts, and anything the Diamond Plus offered us. We had several buy-one get-one discounts that were not applied automatically. Same with the 20% off wine bottles discount and the various other perks (buy one drink, another half off, free 1 scoop of ice cream with purchase, etc).

 

It was kind of aggravating - every single time we tried to use a discount, the bill would come without the discount, and then have to be sent back to be fixed. It broke up the flow of conversation in the dining room when I had to stop and explain that once again I didn't get my 20% off wine bottle to the server (who spoke decent English but still it's not his native language).

 

Or when we had a buy 1 get 1 at Giovanni's, along with a bottle of wine that wasn't 20% off, along with the fact that they charged me the adult price for my kid, and all that had to be sorted out with several trips back and forth by the waiter.

 

RC's point of sale system really needs to start identifying the various discounts immediately and then start having the servers question us as to if we want to use them or not, instead of making us remember all of our discounts.

 

The two times we went up to the Diamond Plus lounge on the 14th floor it was in disarray. It was strange to walk into the exclusive area just to find dishes and empty cans and bottles everywhere, and no attendant on duty. It was weird that the most exclusive part of the ship was the least clean.

Thank you for the extremely detailed review!

 

Which private car company did you use, and did you use them one way or round trip?

 

Thanks!

 

We used http://galveston-shuttle.com/ for a one way trip from the Sheraton on Galveston to Hobby. It's about an hour trip and we received a private towncar for $130. It will be more if you have them pick you up at the port or the airport.

 

Again what was great is that traffic from Galveston to Hobby was massive even at 6AM, and our driver knew all the ways around it and got us to the airport on time.

thanks for the detail! really helps us newbies.

 

question about disembarking...

 

we are driving home and are at the parking lot across the street from the ship...can we keep our bags and just leave with them so we don't have to wait in the hanger? or is that not allowed or not helpful for time management? we are driving straight home to Indiana [i know]...

 

thanks again!

 

On the Liberty people who were using the self check out were lining up at like 6AM, before the boat even docked. Sure, you're the first off the boat but you're also standing around on the 4th floor for a couple of hours until they're ready to release you.

Did they add free style Coke machines to the Liberty while she was in dry dock. If so where are they?

 

They did not, and they were missed. You have to go to a bar to fill up your cup.

 

The good news is that they never checked my Seapass card when I went to any bar to fill up my cup with soda. We're not big soda drinkers but I was able to get several drinks for my wife and kid "for free" (remember I did buy the beverage package, but for booze) throughout the trip simply by filling up the cup and letting them drink from it.

 

My dad brought an empty cup with him from a previous cruise and was able to get it filled up anywhere without paying for a beverage package.

Just wanted to add that the Ice Show is only on Sea Days, and it's a decent show but it's not like your local Arena Ice Capades. It's a small ice rink, about half the size of a basketball court, so they can't exactly scream around doing massive stunts. It's more like a dance/music show that just happens to be done on ice instead of some olympic level ice stunt exhibition.

 

I enjoyed the show but it's the same level of entertainment as everything else on the ship - fun to see, something to do, but if you miss it, it's not like you're missing out on some once in a lifetime experience.

The goofy thing I found on Day 1 before we entered International Waters is that they couldn't put a lime in my rum and coke. I asked several times why and they just mentioned something about Texas Law. Baffling.

 

I posted an extensive review of my experience at Galveston in this forum as well as my Liberty 2/14 to 2/21 cruise.

 

As far as Sabor was concerned, it was great food, but very slow service.

I can definitely see the concern here especially when you're spending thousands of dollars on a cruise and we all know how children act when you're sitting next to them in a local restaurant. I wouldn't want to spend my meals listening to frustrated parents trying to placate their over tired child at a late 8PM dinner either, so I totally get it without judgement! We have a kid and trust me, when I go on a cruise without her, even though she's very adult and well behaved, if I was on a cruise with only my wife but seated with well, lets say over-forgiving parents and an less than well behaved child, I'd be pissed too.

 

We have always been a party of five and have never been seated with anyone else. The round tables in RC dining rooms don't seem to comfortably sit more than 5, but if you have small children you could definitely fit 6 in there.

 

We have seen people with larger parties seated at longer tables, but my and large all the tables in the main dining room seem to be built for 5 people or 2 people. My guess is that the staff doesn't want to deal with 12 person tables because it's usually just 2 staff members per table, so they deliberately keep the table sizes small.

 

During dining room hours on the last cruise on the Liberty we only saw 5 seat round tables, a few longer dining room type tables than sat 8 people, and then smaller tables that only sat 2 people. I assume you can request a 2 person table to prevent you from being matched with another 3 person group.

 

Lunch in the main dining room is a different story. They seat you wherever they can and will ask you if you mind eating with strangers before they seat you. Since lunch is usually a pretty quick ordeal it's not a huge issue in my opinion to sit with strangers for 30 minutes.

 

As far as the kids thing goes, although I've never seen the screaming tantrum kid chaos you'd see at say an Applebee's, but I can see it happening especially if you're looking forward to some decent conversation with strangers but they're totally preoccupied with their kids. If you get seated with a problem family, instead of suffering through it the entire week, you'll just need to stop by guest services and request a table change (do it after 10PM when there's no line).

Thanks for taking the time to read this extensive review of my Liberty of the Seas cruise from Feb 14 to Feb 21, 2016. I wrote down as much detail as possible to give folks as much information as possible so they can plan their future cruises accordingly!

PORT, BOARDING, DISEMBARKING, FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The port at Galveston was more industrial than the port in Tampa. They are constructing more modern buildings to accommodate the cruise ship passengers but for now, long lines formed in a large aircraft hangar like structure.

 

Parking was close and convenient and the porters were well organized. From car to being on board with my new SeaPass took about 45 minutes but we were Diamond Plus courtesy of my parents who were with us and have 41 RC cruises under their belt.

 

Disembarking was a different story. It was chaotic as you’re all ushered into this giant hangar again and you have to somehow form your own lines to find your bags, and then navigate back out out of this chaos to form another line in front of Customs. The queuing area before getting into this hangar was hot and humid even though it was February. The more bags you didn’t check the night before, the more stuff you’ll have to lug around during this time. Next time I’ll consolidate our backpacks and carry on bags into one bag before we leave the ship so we weren’t sweating our assess off.

 

Definitely get a porter as they can navigate around this huge open hangar where bags are stacked up. Without the porter, it would have been a frustrating fight through the crowds while dragging 5 suitcases behind you. Since they’re building a new dedicated area next door to this hangar, I presume this experience will be better in the future. For now, be prepared to push and shove your way into the mosh pit where your bags are located, and then push and shove your way out of the chaos (with all your bags in tow and your family members struggling to keep up) towards a loosely formed line at Customs.

 

After boarding, it was the typical overcrowded chaos in the Windjammer buffet.. Everyone is in there with their carry on bags, knocking into each other and assaulting the buffet. I recommend avoiding it unless you’re starving. I looked around at the chaos and since I wasn’t hungry, I just went up to the deck above the pool and hung out safely away from the hordes of people.

 

Our cabin was ready at 1PM. Bags arrived throughout the afternoon, but I did overhear a couple complaining that it was 6PM and they still haven’t received their bags. We tipped our stateroom attendant $20 per room ahead of time.

 

Our Balcony Cabin was nice, bigger than I expected, with a couch. We utilized all the possible storage space and in the end, it had enough room for all of our stuff. The ship upgrades in January didn’t seem to include the rooms - they were fine, clean, and functional, but still looked a bit outdated. 32” flatscreen TV that did not receive any HD signal, but did get a decent amount of sports and kids channels. Only 2 power outlets in the whole room, so bring multi-USB chargers or a mini surge protector for your portable devices.

 

Bed was fine but thin and firm, I’d recommend asking for an egg crate foam mattress cover. Pillows were a bit lumpy for my tastes but my attendant brought me firmer ones. Plenty of room under the bed to store your empty suitcases.

 

The ship has sliding doors on the balcony rooms so you can slide them open so you can combine balconies with a neighbor (in my case, we opened them up to my parent’s neighboring balcony). Problem is, with high winds, the closed balcony doors rattle and bang in their frames all night. I had to manufacture shims out of folded paper to basically jam the doors against their frames to quiet down the rattling.

 

Day 1 concluded with the Dreamworks parade at the pool deck which was fine for what it was. My daughter was indifferent to it. The large screen on the pool deck where movies were being shown periodically developed a weird line through it, cutting/cropping whatever was on the screen into odd shapes. By the end of the cruise they seemed to have fixed this.

 

First night we ate at Giovanni’s Table. The water glass my daughter was drinking from cracked as she drank from it, cutting her lip and forcing her to spit out all the water so she wouldn’t swallow any glass. I was less than impressed with the staff’s handling of this. Despite our obvious spectacle and calling for a watier, I pretty much had to grab a waiter by his shoulders and spin him around and then give him the broken glass and point out what happened. They apologized but didn’t exactly make a fuss over what happened, something that I felt was odd considering that a child is sitting in their restaurant with blood coming out of her mouth. They also charged my 9 year old full price (instead of the Under 12 price), but that was fine as she preferred the adult menu anyway. The bleeding eventually stopped (and she calmed down and enjoyed her dinner), and they did get her ice cream from Ben and Jerry’s as a bit of a consolation.

 

Day 2 was a windy sea day, with 44 knot apparent winds on the 13th deck. The motion of the ship was okay, it was just difficult to spend any time outside because of the winds.

 

Smoking on the ship was the entire port side of the public pool area, something I thought was unusual. In other ships it’s delegated to a smaller, maybe 30 foot long section of the boat, but in this case it was almost the entire length of the pool area. Walking through there was like rolling around on an ashtray, very smoky and unpleasant. During Day 3, we got to the pool late and had to sit near the smoking section and it was horrible even though it was a windy day and our deck chairs were a good 15 feet away. At the end of the day we reeked like cigarettes. RC puts plenty of chairs and tables in the smoking section, which unfortunately encourages smokers to hang out instead of just getting their fix and leaving.

 

MEALS AND SNACKS

Main dining room was a mixed experience. Our designated waiter was okay, but not fantastic. The food was good, but not amazing. On our last cruise out of Tampa in 2014, we ranted and raved about how excellent everything in the dining room was, but this time, we could count flaws in most of the dishes. On more than one occasion our waiter delivered the wrong choice and although it was swapped quickly, he seemed to be perpetually confused as to who ordered what. When the food arrived we usually had to raise our hands to denote where the dish belonged. Drink service was slow the first couple of days, but by the end of the cruise they knew what we each liked to drink. For some reason, the final night’s dining room dinner they were only serving Meyers Dark rum instead of Bacardi Light rum in our drinks, something I didn’t care for.

 

Most of the food was a solid 8 out of 10 in quality and taste. A few dishes were better, but some were worse. Italian night and seafood night were the standouts. You won’t need to add any salt or butter to any of the dishes. I don’t recall any dish being particularly spicy either, so if you’re into spicy food you may be disappointed. The best way to describe the overall quality was “better than a chain restaurant, but not as good as your favorite neighborhood restaurant”.

 

Lunch service in the main dining room was fine, when it was available. They mix your salad for you after you pick ingredients, and oddly, the lunch portions were small (but you could always order more).

 

We ate at all the specialty restaurants during the cruise. Other than the glass breaking incident, Giovanni’s was very good, with the appetizers being better than the main dishes. Sabor (Mexican) was good, but with very slow service. We must have spent 2 hours there, mostly waiting for our dishes to arrive. We were in a talkative mood so it wasn’t a big deal that night, but I could tell other patrons were annoyed. The food was very good, with the mole beef, the made-at-your-table guac, the sangria, and the dessert platter being the stand outs.

 

Chop’s was fantastic all around. Great service, impeccable waiter, excellent food, intimate setting. We did end up spending $100 total at Chops that night however, as the dry aged steaks cost more, plus wine. I wished my waiter at Chops was my designated waiter at the main dining room.

 

After a poor experience at the buffet last cruise, Liberty’s Windjammer buffet was actually better than I remembered. All the food was lukewarm at best however, but I expected that and only used the Windjammer to grab some breakfast stuff, a quick burger, or snack foods for lunch. If I had to pay separately for the buffet I would be disappointed, but as it is, it was fine to just stop in, grab some coffee and food, eat for 15 minutes, and bail out.

 

I don’t really remember anything exceptional about the buffet, there wasn’t any amazing carving station nor knock your socks off desserts. Oddly the two times I walked through during lunch, they weren’t serving anything to make your own sandwich - I had to go to the Promenade Cafe to grab a premade sandwich instead. There were a few more adventurous choices throughout the week, such as sushi, thai food, and mongolian BBQ. While I applauded RC for including these on the ship, it wasn’t really quite up to the quality and selection we get at home. It was “exotic” food toned down for the average American.

 

The final sea day wasn’t that windy, and RC did a BBQ on the pool deck which was actually pretty good. Ribs, sausage, burgers, etc - while it wasn’t gourmet, I was pretty impressed with the quality and wish they would have done that for a couple of days inside the Windjammer.

 

Johnny Rockets was pretty crappy. It had weird hours - it seems like every time I walked by there, it was closed. It’s on the outside of the ship, on the 12th floor, near all the kids club stuff so it’s never convenient to be near it. If you opt for a milkshake, you’re paying $8 to dine there, and I was pretty disappointed.

 

It was far less quality then a Johnny Rocket’s at home - this place reminded me more like a Burger King. Fries and onion rings were placed on the table (lukewarm) only a minute after you order them, so they’ve been sitting around a while. The BLT was quite literally a single piece of each ingredient on toast with mayo. Chicken club, same thing as the BLT but with a piece of thin, lukewarm chicken in there. The grilled cheese was horrible, it was the same BLT toast with mostly unmelted cheese between each slice. Burgers were not much different or special than the ones you get at the Windjammer during lunch. Milkshakes were alright, but again I’d rather go to Ben and Jerry’s in the Promenade and get them there. I won’t go back to a JR on a RC ship - it just wasn’t worth the extra cost.

 

The Promenade food was readily available and pretty good. Pizza at Sorrento’s isn’t going to win any awards but it was fine, a step up from Pizza Hut but not as good or with varied ingredients like you’d get at say Round Table. Sandwiches were fine, as were the desserts.

 

ALCOHOL

Drink prices were higher than my last RC cruise 2 years ago, with beers going for $7 or more and mixed drinks for $9 or more. After spending $65 on booze the first day (and barely feeling any buzz as it was spread over 10 hours), I broke down and bought the $50/day booze package and definitely got my money’s worth for the rest of the cruise.

 

I had to talk to a guest services rep to figure out the difference between the $50 and $60 package, as it wasn’t really written anywhere in the literature. Basically the $60 package includes lattes / speciality coffee drinks, as well as sparkling water such as Perrier. I couldn’t see myself drinking more than $10 of those things per day so I opted for the cheaper package which included almost everything, plus 20% off any wine bottles. It only paid for $12/glass of wine however, so anything over that you had to pay the difference.

 

If you plan on having more than 5 drinks a day, it’s mathematically worth it, just keep in mind that if you only have 2 drinks during a particular day, you have to “make up for it” another day. I found myself freely trying the various exotic drink combinations during the day, stuff I would never usually spend $10 on (like mudslides and hurricanes). When you add in a mimosa at breakfast, another drink before dinner, wine with dinner, and a glass of whiskey after 10PM, you end up saving quite a bit. You also no longer are required to buy the booze package for every member of your stateroom.

 

The pub and the wine bar were decent establishments to hang out in. Beer selection has always been a problem for me on RC cruises, and this cruise was no different. The Pub had only one IPA (Red Hook), a blue label Chimay (extra cost), and then mostly the same mass marketed stuff you get at any grocery store like Bud, Coors, Michelob, Stella, Corona, etc. If you’re a “beer guy” like me, you won’t find anything worth drinking on RC ships.

 

Overall, drink service was excellent. I never had to wait long for a drink no matter where I was on the ship.

 

The last 2 days of the cruise RC started selling “$60 for 10 drinks” punch cards which you could freely share with anyone. I hope they start selling these earlier in the cruise next time because it’d be a great way to save money while giving flexibility to your alcohol purchases.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

Saturday Night Fever was okay, both in talent, the production, and the story itself. It’s not Broadway caliber. It was about as good as any musical production you’ll see in a mid sized city. The lead Tony actor could sing well, but not dance very well. There was several warnings in the day planner and the on-ship TV channel about the “adult content”, and since the 1977 movie was rated R and has sex, abortion, and suicide in it, we decided not to let our kid come with us. Turns out that was unnecessary as the on-board show was altered considerably and there’s just a few swear words and some sexual references.

 

The PG-rated comedy / magic show was kind of a bore. The guy was British and did a few tricks as he told the same kind of jokes as Emo Philips tells, mostly long, corny stories comparing England to the USA in between some very average sleight of hand tricks involving cards and rope. My daughter was confused about the references and bored between the time it took him to do the magic tricks. We left early because we needed to get ready for dinner, and from what we heard it didn’t get much better.

 

The “In The Air” show reminded me of a Cirque De Soleil “lite”. Dancers, singing, guys on ribbons and floating through the air on wires, some moving stage elements, things like that. It was the best show on the ship.

 

The Ice Rink show was almost as good as the In The Air show. There is a very limited about of ice rink on the ship so they weren’t dashing around like you see on the Ice Capades, but it was still pretty well done.

 

There was another show with 3 women singing and it was horrific. We walked out after 15 minutes - they were practically screeching songs “throughout the decades” and “Eleanor Rigby” sounded the same as “Like a Virgin”. It was embarrassingly bad, I kept thinking they must have press-ganged some of the staff into performing because they just weren’t any good.

 

In summary, the night time shows were fine, but you would be disappointed if you booked this cruise primarily for the onboard entertainment. All the shows were something to watch before dinner but not something you’d rant and rave to your friends about.

 

The lounges had a great guitar player, a salsa band, and a morose piano player who told meandering stories in between grim renditions of unusual song choices (“Knights in White Satin” and “Baker Street” aren’t exactly sing along favorites).

 

We were very disappointed with “DJ Tony”. After 10PM, pretty much the only thing to do on the ship is to go to the adults-only lounge on the 14th floor and have some drinks and listen to the DJ. We were looking forward to doing this, drinking and dancing before bed. DJ Tony quickly made us groan with his inept, repetitive playlist. Every single night it was the exact same playlist, not at all in tune with the age or desires of the audience. I had the playlist memorized after the 2nd night, so I can tell you that after that one Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams” remix plays, he’ll go into AC/DC, which will then transition into Sweet Child of Mine, then Bob Seger before going to the Cupid Shuffle. Night after night after night. He didn’t take requests and didn’t change the mix when the dance floor cleared because the next song on his immovable playlist drained the energy out of the crowd.

 

Practically nothing from the year 2000 or later was played. Absolutely no Katy Perry, Drake, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, etc. It was baffling and really disappointing. We would have gladly thrown more money around at the bar if DJ Tony gave us any motivation to stay. The last night of the cruise, DJ Tony came around and finally played some decent music with a good mix, and I have no idea why he wasn’t doing this the entire time. The next morning was an early departure day so we didn’t stick around all night to listen.

 

OTHER ACTIVITES

Ice skating was fun, however it’s a small rink (about half the size of a basketball court) so all you could do was go in circles. The sessions were busy and limited to only 20 minutes at a time, and there was only a few sessions the entire trip.

 

The Quest (adult scavenger hunt thing) was a lot of fun. The auditorium gets broken up into sections, and each section has to give their dedicated “runner” an item as quickly as possible when the MC asks for it. It gets really funny when they ask for 5 pairs of pants or 5 bras or “5 things that are fake”. We enjoyed it a lot, shame it was only 45 minutes long.

 

Trivia goes on throughout the ship in various lounges and every one I went to was ridiculously difficult. The “winner” was usually the team that managed to only get 5 right out of 20! Bingo was really expensive, something like $30 for two tickets. Casino was decent, but smoky, and my $200 disappeared in less than thirty minutes, so the slot machines didn’t really pay out anything.

 

The kids side of the pool was awesome. Little water slides, water guns, all sorts of great ways for the parents to play with their kids. It was well staffed with supervisors watching out for the kids. Both pools were unheated and pretty cold (my guess is around 65 degrees) except in the hot tubs.

 

The mini golf course was decent except since it’s on the 13th floor, it was really windy a few of the days. The adult water slides were great, right on par with any waterpark, with the only downside being again the wind and the fact that it was a 4 story climb to get to the top. There was also a sort of metal, adults-only, turbo flue-shaped water slide which wasn’t running at all during the week trip. I thought that was unusual to have a ship come out of dry dock a month earlier, yet still have an entire attraction completely offline the entire cruise.

 

The Flow Rider wave machine was fun, and the sessions alternated between boogie boarding and surfing. Only one person at a time however, and the Flow Rider was only active a couple hours a day.

 

EXCURSIONS / SERVICE

We used Island Marketing for our excursions and they were all great. Snorkeling in Belize and the Iguana Farm / Mangrove Forest / Animal Sanctuary Island Tour in Roatan. The Animal Sanctuary wasn’t on the official list but it was run by an ex-employee of Island Marketing and it was AMAZING. Daniel (the ex-employee) runs a small animal sanctuary where he takes in abandoned exotic animals. We got to hold a sloth, monkeys climbed all over us, parrots and exotic birds hung out on our hats. It wasn’t exploitative at all - you could tell that Daniel and his small team genuinely adore and care for their 15 or so animals and the $10 entry fee basically helps house and feed them. If you go on an Island Tour and have the option, definitely tell the guide to stop by this place, it’s very close to the Iguana Farm (which was also awesome and a bit creepy with hundreds of iguanas hanging out right on the pathways). Only downside to our Island Marketing Roatan tour was that the vehicle was a beat-up minivan (we expected more like a SUV) and the air conditioning took a long time to get going.

 

I would highly recommend using Island Marketing Ltd. for your excursions in Roatan and Belize.

 

We had a RC tour of the Mayan Ruins scheduled in Cozumel but my wife twisted her ankle snorkeling and wasn’t up for hiking around ruins at 7AM the next day. Guest Services initially denied my request to get my $160 back because we were past the 24 hour cancellation policy. I returned later with my dad and he used some of his Diamond Plus leverage to get a refund of one of the two $80 tickets. I didn’t want to go by myself (nor really get up at 5:30AM) so I just ate that $80, happy that it wasn’t $160.

 

Unfortunately while I was waiting at Guest Services I over heard not one but three nightmare stories from other guests about their excursions in Belize. It sounded like RC really dropped the ball in Belize. The biggest complaints seemed to be about poor time management from the tour staff (too waiting around and in transit, short time at the event), mandatory stops at a gift stands, and bad food (“our lunch was some sort of pink spread on white bread, while the tour guides ate chicken and rice”).

 

The ship also had endless Art Auctions and diamond/jewelry/watch “sales events”, all of which we ignored.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, I’d give it an 8 out of 10 and I would definitely do it again. The high points were the excursions, most of our food choices, and the family friendly options such as the kid’s pool, mini golf, and water slides. The low points most of the on board entertainment, the crowded pool area on sea days, the large smoking section, and that horrible DJ.

 

Because of the way the flight pricing worked out, we opted to stay in Galveston on Sunday night and leave Hobby on Monday morning. Galveston in February wasn’t exactly tropical weather, so plan your dress accordingly. We wandered around Galveston a bit but mostly hung out in our room at the Four Points Sheraton, which was very nice for under $100. It was $150 for a private car to drive us from Galveston to Hobby, and well worth it as the driver knew all the tricks to avoiding the tremendous amount of traffic we saw on the highways at only 7AM!

Factor in traffic. You WILL hit rush hour at 6 am. For comparison, I used to live in Dickinson. (Exit 19/20) and commuted to downtown. It took 2 hours, usually (16 miles). The hotel should be able to get you a cab, also. Galveston to Hobby, I'd figure on about an hour without traffic. Things tend to get really backed up around Clear Lake, and doesn't get a lot better. Idk if taxis can use the HOV lanes, if they can, that would help. (They're hard to find/confusing unless you know where you're going)

 

Hmm, we're from the Bay Area and used to horrific traffic but 2 hours for 16 miles at 6AM sounds really bad - about double my morning commute.

 

I think we'll order a car service then instead of racking up a huge bill in a cab. Thanks for the tip!